Reflections

As part of the Patheos Book Club, Through a Glass Onion has posted a great review of The Artist’s Rule: Paintner’s book is written as a 12-week journey that shares the wisdom of monastic practice, especially Benedictine—of which Paintner is an oblate. It is a book meant to be read as part of one’s creative journey. The difficulty in reviewing Paintner’s book is that I didn’t have twelve weeks to sit with it, absorb it, learn from it, and put it into practice. In fact, I didn’t even have twelve days. But, I didn’t need twelve days, weeks, or months to find

Mary Ann Moore wrote a lovely review of The Artist’s Rule at Story Circle Book Reviews: Christine Valters Paintner has “a deep love of Benedictine tradition as well as the gifts of Celtic and desert monasticism.” She is a Benedictine oblate with training in the expressive arts. She says, “Creativity and contemplative spirituality nurture and support each other in their commitments to the slow way, to a close attention to the inner life and to the sacred being revealed in each moment.” Her book offers support for a graceful journey through creativity and contemplation. The author considers herself to be

Christine Sine at Godspace so graciously invited me to reflect on how lectio divina has changed my life and view of the world.  Here is a brief except from The Transforming Power of Lectio Divina: A Deeper Look at the Four Movements: After almost twenty years of practicing lectio divina, I see the world differently.  Each moment and thing has the potential to become a vehicle for revelation.  Lectio divina has changed my life.  Instead of being something I practice for twenty minutes each morning it has become a way I experience and move through the world.  Instead of feeling

Elizabeth Scalia who blogs at The Anchoress has a lovely new review of The Artist’s Rule.  Here is an excerpt from her review on my exploration of monastic hospitality: There, I encountered a notion I’d suspected for a while — that difficulty in welcoming others as Christ is rooted in one’s difficulty in welcoming the Christ within oneself — but in Paintner’s gentle voice, this didn’t seem nearly as harsh as it has seemed in my own. Paintner recognizes, and wants the reader to recognize, that our inner selves, our passions, fears, miseries and imaginings all exist and run amok

I am delighted that The Artist’s Rule will be one of the featured books at the Patheos Book Club for the last half of August. Visit the book club page to find: an interview with me about contemplation and creativity an excerpt from the book (chapter 1) a link to a blogger’s roundtable where folks will be posting in response to my book during the next couple of weeks.  The first two are lovely posts by Carl Gregg and Eliacin. I will post updates with links here.

I am delighted to have a guest post up at Anam Cara, the spiritual direction site run by the delightful Tara Owens.  Tara asked me to write about “art, delight, and the spiritual life” and here is an excerpt: When Tara asked me to write about art, delight, and the spiritual life it was really that word “delight” which shimmered for me. Summer for me is a season of savoring sweetness and delight, of relishing the gift of abundance as I walk through our weekly farmer’s market or watch my dog romp and play in wide open fields or cherish long

The lovely Claudia Mairs Burney who hosted my article on The Artist Begins Again and Again also invited me to an “innerview” on the practice of lectio divina.  Here is an excerpt: What do these sacred words do for the soul? Words can illuminate our hearts; they contain the seeds of invitation to cross a new threshold.  Words ripen within us.  We can receive a word and not realize its full impact for our lives for a long while until one day we suddenly see things differently. I often find lines of poems singing in my heart for months after